“Maybe a half hour, to make sure the bleedin’s really stopped.Then we best get goin’.”
We sat there, in the middle of the day, swatting away the mosquitoes that somehow found us wherever we were.They didn’t bother me as much as they did Oscar.I supposed he tasted better.
In a moment, he stood and started to do a little dance, swatting at the annoying insects and cussing like a sailor.’Twas too amusing for words, and I couldn’t help laughing.But the sharp pain in my side took my breath away.
“Stop it, Oscar.Stop.”I raised my hand in protest, and to block the image of him waving around like a windmill.“I need to be still.”
“Are you laughing?Are you laughing at me, Jimmy Downing?You fucker.”He stopped his frantic dance and stared hard at me.“I saved you from bleedin’ to death and you’re laughin’ at me.”
“I’m sorry.You just— You looked—” I grimaced with the pain of laughing and tried to calm myself down.
He strode o’er and stood in front of me, his arms across his chest.The mosquitoes buzzed around him like devoted acolytes, but he ignored them, except to twitch his head and blow at them when they came near.
“How do I look, Jimmy?Like a fella who’s plumb tired of traveling and only wants to get to where we’re goin’?”
“You look like you’re showin’ me…some kind of new dance.”
“New dance?I’ll show you a new dance,” Oscar said, falling to his knees in the dirt.He came close and put his mouth to mine so’s I’d stop making pained noises, and I did, opening under his kiss and trying to catch my breath.When he pulled away, he glanced down at the bulge in my pants that I couldn’t hide and the pain didn’t hinder.
“Well, I guess you really are okay, then, if you can laugh and get hard.Can we get going?Now?”
I sighed, cupping his chin and kissing him sweetly before I nodded.
“I reckon.You need to help me up onto my horse.”
Oscar rolled his eyes.“Come on, Old Man.”
* * * *
Turned out riding with a jagged gash in the side of your vulnerable underbelly was a tricky and tortuous business.I had to keep my elbow pressed down against the bandages else ‘twould seem like my insides were at risk of comin’ out, and the movement of riding would be too much.
Thank goodness Dixie was a steady horse and didn’t give me any trouble.As long as I could keep my seat, we’d be okay.But as we went along, hiding the pain I was in from Oscar got to be more of a challenge.
I saw him eyeing me from time to time, as Dixie went o’er some difficult terrain, and I winced or grimaced.’Twasn’t until we had to wade through a mountain stream that I let go a whimper so pitiful it made me blush with shame.
When we got to the other side of the water, Oscar grabbed Dixie’s bridle and led us up onto the bank.
“Jimmy, I can tell you’re strugglin’ with it.”
I nodded.“I’ll be okay.”
My voice sounded rough and far away, and I hoped I wasn’t about to pass out.
“How about I lead Dixie, then you only have to hold on and not fall off.”
I frowned.“Oscar, that’s gonna add time onto this journey that we ain’t got.”
He narrowed his eyes.“Jimmy Downing, you listen here.It won’t be much good to go fast and have you fall or faint before we get there, will it?”
We stared at each other—a battle of wills that I generally lost when Oscar was this determined.And I didn’t have much fight left in me.
“Sure.Okay.”
Oscar gave a curt nod and moved Onyx closer.I passed him Dixie’s other rein.
“Thank you.Now concentrate on keeping your seat, and I’ll get us there.I promise.”Oscar looked about him, then back at me.“I know the way, now.I’m sure of it.”
I hoped he did know the way, because I was barely able to keep my wits about me with the throbbing agony of my injury.I wondered if he’d been honest that it didn’t look like a deep gash, because right now it felt like it went through all my inner organs and up into my chest.’Twas probably the pain making an echo of itself, as it tended to do in situations like this.At least, I hoped that was it.I wondered what Miss June would do if the bandage came off and my kidney tumbled out.
